nasa releasing these pictures that were taken not by me, but by a special satellite called sumy npp. we're about to show you the united states, you can see it coming into frame, and you can see how the lights illuminating from the ground look a lot like the stars and the constellations we see when we look up at night. and here's a bird's eye view of egypt's nile river lit up by boats. yes, those are lights from boats. the reason these images are possible is because of a new sensor that is onboard the camera which stands for the national polar orbiting partnership. it was launched last year. it gives scientists -- and us -- a brand new way to observe what our planet looks like once the sun goes down. what do you think of that, jon? jon: that's cool. and atlanta really stands out in the shot of the sort of, you know, eastern seaboard. i don't know, it's kind of interesting. i was surprised that atlanta is so big and bright. >> reporter: atlanta and, of course, the northeast. and you can see there that sort of corridor up in new york and philly and boston. and then there's a lot of dark